Thursday, December 4, 2008

The headline that says it all ...

Just how valid is Harper's claim that changing governments without a new election would be undemocratic? "It's politics, it's pure rhetoric," said Ned Franks, a retired Queen's University expert on parliamentary affairs. "Everything that's been happening [concerning the NDP-Liberal coalition] is both legal and constitutional."

Other scholars are virtually unanimous in their agreement. They say Harper's populist theory of democracy is more suited to a U.S.-style presidential system, in which voters cast ballots directly for a national leader, than it is to Canadian parliamentary democracy.

"He's appealing to people who learned their civics from American television," said Henry Jacek, a political scientist at McMaster University.

That said, one lesson we can learn from our American cousins in recent years is to beware of those at the heights of power who deliberately mislead ordinary people in order to expand that power.